The Campus District of Cleveland is a melting pot of students, artists, professionals, businesses, social service agencies and people experiencing homelessness. It is also home to one of the first arts districts in Cleveland. CDI utilizes community network building strategies to build bridges between these diverse populations and tackle issues head on with open community engagement planning sessions...

CDI works regularly with the Third District Cleveland Police, Cleveland Downtown Services Unit and Cleveland State University Police on safety issues.

In response to concerns from businesses and residents, CDI engaged social service and shelter organizations in creating a Public Bathroom Committee. Neighborhood social service agencies and homeless shelters - Bishop Cosgrove Center, Care Alliance, Frontline Services, and Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry (LMM) – have been working together for on developing a plan for a public bathroom to alleviate unsanitary conditions.CDI has worked with partners to map "splash zones" and the committee is the the process of verifying funds to test and gather data with temporary port-a-potties prior to permanent investments.

I spoke from abridged prepared comments and also submitted a detailed copy of my comments for the record.

This is what I said:

Good Morning!

My name is Satinder P. S. Puri.

I am a community activist, live on Cleveland west side in Councilman Kazys ward 16 and love riding the RTA.

The renovated Public Square a.k.a. Jimmy Dimora Public Square, because of the corruption involved -- -- is a 50 million dollar bogus project built with cheap materials and mostly paved with hard surfaces.

So far there have been nearly 900 hours of demonstrations which continue unabated.

There was also a ten-day long hunger strike to protest the corruption.

There was nothing wrong with the historic 218-year old Public Square that a little rehabilitation could not fix.

The renovated Public Square reflects the flawed vision of Mayor Jackson who said: I want to see one big square.

According to the Traffic Consultants Report the Mayors vision was not workable.

So his honor instead of one big square had to settle for two rectangles the current configuration.

Well, the revised vision was also unworkable because of penalties to the RTA.

Mayor Jackson was aware of the penalties but went ahead with the project anyway.

Mass deception was used to promote the bogus project.

Mayor Jackson never responded to ten e-mails and two certified letters raising questions about the bogus project.

The bogus project is not good for Clevelanders nor RTA riders but definitely good for downtowns property owners who should expect an appreciation in their property values supported by RTA riders the poor, working class, senior citizens, disabled, and others who will get screwed with increased fares and reduced services.

This is called the Cleveland Way.

Now City Hall is expressing spurious safety concerns for children. If you walk downtown you are likely to see more dogs than kids among the 14,000 residents.

On non-event days I dont count more than 50 to a hundred people even with the band playing.

At a given time -- there are more people outside Public Square than inside totally oblivious of this so-called masterpiece in urban park design.

The day after RNC left I was the lone protester in an almost abandoned Public Square.

Mayor Jackson has thrown RTA riders under the bus by not opening Superior Avenue and not reimbursing RTA for the costs incurred:

1 million dollars annually for closing Ontario Street;

1.6 million dollars annually for closing Superior Avenue;

and $3.5 million dollars for full closure during the 16-month construction period.

Mr. Chairman -- now that we have a renovated Public Square and the RNC was here this summer -- all Cleveland needs to make it big time --- is a Trump Tower.

I am personally sick that individuals are harassed and intimidated against participating in the control of their local government. Since, 1990s the PAC set up by Forest City has controlled all council seats and mayoral position in Cleveland. The cabal hatched during the Mike White era - poisoned the well of all future candidates for office and mushroomed into widespread Cuyahoga County corruption. Every city and now county council seat is determined by the cabal. That cabal includes CDCs - community development corporations, which incestuously breed more supporters beholden to money politics.

All federal monies are directed to support these non-profit CDCs and the web of "poverty" non-profit entities that launder support for these candidates through their hiring practices. Cleveland Neighborhood Progress determines the foundations funds to all of these CDCs with Michael R. White representing the Mandel Foundation. The local media - Cleveland dot com and television stations (WKYC) - are beholden to the cabal. Occasionally, some one tries to push against the cabal. Those individuals are destroyed. This is Cleveland - the rest of the world and even cities, like Washington DC, Chicago and New York, mired by similar corruption are moving towards transparency and open government. These urban centers realize that money politics will not attract businesses and a younger demographic. The paradigm is shifting, but Cleveland clings to the cabal and, like Detroit, we are a polarized, dying city on a shimmering gold lake of water. Water, water, everywhere - and not a drop to share, because the greedy bastards have to have it all.

I guess gentrification doesn't deter crime,no matter what the Plain Dealer or Mayor F.Jackson claim,but then we are how many police officers short of a full compliment for each shift..

We are so short that the three women kidnapped on the near west side,had to rescue themselves,by breaking out,our serial killer onImperial was so sloppy that one victim bailed out through the 2nd floor window nude and they would believe her,neither the police,detectives,nor the prosecutor and another attempeted serial killer almost had to give himself up to stop killing,but we can spend $30 million to fix Public Square into a park like setting that has very few events,even in good weather,now they want to detour buses and inconvenience citizens that cross Public Square daily to go to workand need their buses and another $30 million to build a bridge from Mall C to the Rock and Roll HOF,that is only used by the people from a couple of parking lots,while West 3rd. and East 9th street bridges are used almost exclusively,( BUILD IT AND THEY STILL WON"T USE IT)..

Yes,please remind me of these boondoggles,like the tax payer funded JumboTrons at Browns Stadium,shaped like Tennessee in northern ohio,the giveaway parking contracts to the Briowns owner and Medical Mart,how about the 300 police bikes bought with federal dollars to give away to the citizens on the pretext of bike rentals.Let's build a dirt bike track for $2 million dollarsfor the use of the mayors nephew,to be used by dirt bikes,4 wheelers,snowmobiles,disregardingthe amount of land that is needed and the several noise ordinances,it's for the mayors nephew,the Cleveland Tax Treasury must be in Mayor Jacksons pocket,so he can buy all kinds of toys for his family,but the Justice Department doesn't investigate democratic mayors,city council membersor any county officials..They keep giving tax breaks to corporations and campaign donors but they just raised the city income tax to pick up the slack.Keep on electing this guy,he'll put you in the poor house.

From Eric Jonathon Brewer on FB:

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson can't even handle a bottom-of-the-totem-pole cop named Steve Loomis, so the idea of him battling President-elect Donald Trump on stop and frisk and militarizing the police is out of the question.

Let's be real. Jackson has his limits. Cleveland is a prime time town and he's a not ready for prime time player. His best national moment was welcoming Trump and the Republican National Committee while reading from a teleprompter. It wasn't Jackson's face on CBS 60 Minutes assuring the town's citizens, the nation and world that they'd be safe from cop misconduct, it was his chief of police mumbling through an interview that inspired no one with confidence in the city's law enforcement managers.

We residents of Cleveland have been limited by Jackson's limits. The town's buildings in certain sections of the city look great, but failing schools, violence in the neighborhoods and joblessness underscore how little Jackson and city council have invested in “human” capital.

The U.S. Department of Justice identified 600 acts of police “crimes” that were concealed in incident reports that led to possibly innocent citizens being wrongfully charged. Neither Jackson nor council have had the intellectual curiosity to hold public investigations and hearings to learn if the innocent were given job and opportunity-killing criminal records. It's because they don't give a fuck about people.

Case Western Reserve University has conducted an unreleased study of high levels of toxins in the city's drinking water. It's shortening the lives of Clevelanders and leading to high rates of kidney disease. Infant mortality among the city's Descendant of Slaves population is worse than a third world nation. Neither Jackson nor council have had the curiosity to hold public investigations and hearings to save resident lives and health because they don't give a fuck about people.

Consider that city council isn't talking up a report that only 18 percent of city jobs are held by residents of Cleveland. 82 percent of city workers were not even eligible to vote for the income tax increase Jackson and council just asked Cleveland voters to support so they could keep getting paid. It means that even before state lawmakers killed residency laws, Jackson and council weren't enforcing what Cleveland voters told them to enforce in the charter. The only thing Jackson and council want “real” Clevelanders to do is pay. They don't give a fuck about the people.

Cleveland looks like a world class city, but its looks are deceiving. No town is well when the people who live in it aren't sharing in its prosperity, and that has to change. It won't if Jackson remains Cleveland's mayor and a majority of current council members are re-elected.

Many Clevelanders are afraid of Trump and rightfully so because they know Jackson won't protect them if he can't control a low-ranked cop like Loomis. Not only does Trump support stop and frisk and militarized cops, he wants to rip apart immigrant families.

No. Everyone from somewhere else doesn't belong in Cleveland if they're here illegally and committing destructive crimes. But the idea of emptying the homes some immigrants have purchased or rented, closing the businesses they've started that creates storefront vacancies, and radically diminishing the town's population while we're trying to grow makes no sense. It represents losses to cities on so many levels that this nation's 19,492 mayors and city managers must have the guts to stand up to the Trump administration and say “no” when it's necessary. Jackson is not the one because he's not, nor will he ever be, ready for prime time. But his limits shouldn't be ours.

Jackson's campaign committee is captioned “Frank G. Jackson for a Better Cleveland.” It should really be captioned “Cleveland is Better Off Without Frank G. Jackson” for all the hope the mayor inspires.

Voters got it right with residency. They got it wrong with Jackson and a city council who don't give a fuck about the people who live, breath and drink Cleveland, as their failure to be Cleveland advocates has deteriorated our overall quality of life.

So, for me, if Jackson and city council don't give a fuck about the people who live in Cleveland, then why should the people who live in Cleveland give a fuck about them? Think about it.

The vast majority of Cleveland citizens have “told” the mayor, a public employee living off their tax dollars, that they have no confidence in double-dipping Martin Flask, Michael McGrath and Calvin Williams supervising cops. What has Jackson done? He's said “fuck you.” It doesn't matter if we're satisfied. He's satisfied.

We all see the inequities and injustices. We all see the lying, stealing and covering up. We all see Jackson's high paid fuckups, from Cleveland school CEO Eric Gordon to the Community Development Department's Michael Cosgrove. A mutha fuckin' tax increase because he can't manage the city. Two mutha fuckin' tax increases because Gordon can't manage suburban workers to educate Cleveland children. Clevelanders don't get the jobs. We don't get the service. We just get to pay.

Clevelanders are paying but they damn sho' ain't playing, and it's our city, not Jackson's or corporate Cleveland's. Men from Cleveland neighborhoods can't even hangout downtown or West 6th Street without getting shot and harassed by cops, and this is supposed to be a city where the Descendants of Slaves are damn near a 60 percent majority.

So, to me, if Jackson doesn't decide to keep his ass out of the 2017 mayor's race, then he needs to be fired. The same with the council majority. Nothing changes until they do.

Sadly, Cleveland's design community is so out of touch with how to bring families to live in an urban environment. There are a lot of collective efforts here in CLE making trails and a healthy lifestyle more apparent. SlowRoll Cleveland, Critical Mass - and the legions of folks who like to run (I am not one of them). We can enjoy our city despite the money politics - don't wait for the insane $33M bridge planned for "Campus District" and don't wait for Canalway trail connecting "towpath" to the Lakefront (Whiskey Island). Just get out and go